Another Mass Shooting Leaves U.S. Bracing for More
Additionally, Amarasingham warned these sites push individuals “to see incoherence and nonsense as virtuous.”
It is a culture than can be confounding.
“Traditional extremism frameworks have a hard time with this because we are trained to demand a level of coherence in ideologies. This is not that,” Amarasingham said. “People who look at his attendance at Trump rallies and so on are going to miss a major piece of this story.
In a statement Tuesday, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas described the attack on the Highland Park July Fourth parade as “yet another mass shooting” and promised his department would redouble its efforts to prevent future tragedies.
“The security of our homeland requires more,” Mayorkas said in a statement. “It requires all of us, together, to address the epidemic of targeted gun violence, including the development and implementation of new community-based models of prevention and intervention.”
What federal government officials, whether at the Department of Homeland Security or other agencies, can do about access to guns is unclear, especially after last month’s Supreme Court ruling, which struck down a New York State gun control law as unconstitutional.
For now, Homeland Security officials say they will focus on efforts like the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, which provides financial resources and other assistance to communities across the country to help stop young people from radicalizing.
U.S. states are also offering help to local communities.
The New Jersey office of Homeland Security and Preparedness (NJOHSP) told VOA it routinely “tracks events and works closely with communities, organizers and venues to help prevent, mitigate and respond to any potential threats.”
“We encourage interfaith communities, businesses and the general public to connect with their local law enforcement,” the NJOHSP added in an email. “These partnerships are better forged prior to any potential crises unfolding.”
There are concerns, however, that such programs are not enough.
“There is a resistance in general, either from kind of an ideological perspective, in some cases because of historical mistrust of what the federal government has been doing,” said Sam Lichtenstein, director of analysis at the Risk Assistance Network and Exchange, also known as RANE.
“But even in communities that are more receptive to some of these things you can have as many local authorities that are interested and eager to participate as you want, but if it doesn’t really filter down to the really local grass roots, which is the hardest thing to do, it’s unlikely to really be successful,” he told VOA.
There are also doubts about the reliability of counting on Americans to report concerns — and then getting needed help for those trending towards violence.
“What’s tragic here [in Highland Park] and what you see in a lot of these incidents is that now we all look back and we find some proverbial red flags,” said RANE’s Lichtenstein.
“Violent, inciteful rhetoric is becoming normalized in society and that is most definitely making it harder to pull out what’s really concerning from social media and other statements,” he said. “For many people, even if they hear concerning things, it doesn’t immediately kind of trigger for them, ‘Oh, I should be reporting this.’”
Jeff Seldin is VOA national security reporter. This article is published courtesy of the Voice of America (VOA).
